DEVINE — To understand Joseph Sadler's outlook for this season, just look at how his last one ended.

The final play is burned into his memory for all the wrong reasons.

“That play's one that you want to forget,” he said, “and can't.”

It was overtime in Devine's bidistrict game against Cuero, and Sadler had just scored his fourth touchdown, on a 25-yard run. An extra point would force a second overtime. The Warhorses wanted the win. Coach Chad Quisenberry sent in the call.

Cutback sweep left.

The play put the ball in the hands of Sadler, who had already rushed for 247 yards. Sadler took a direct snap and cut to his left. The tight end was slow off the ball, allowing his man to blow by. Sadler bounced outside, where a Cuero cornerback cut his legs. Sadler spun around and landed on the goal line.

“Watching the film, it looks like I was in,” Sadler said.

But the referee ruled otherwise. Cuero won 29-28.

“For the first time ever, he was sad,” said his older brother and quarterback Jacob Sadler. “He made a promise to me and the town. He said that if it ever comes down to it and there's one guy in front of me to win the game, I'm going to win. I'm not going to lose anymore.”

That means avoiding a repeat of “The Play.”

“It was kind of a wake-up that showed I need to work harder to make sure that never happens again,” Sadler said.

Until that play, Sadler had hardly ever been stopped. He averaged 9.0 yards per carry and led Devine in rushing and receiving.

“They'd say, ‘Go get it,'” he said, “and I'd get it.”

He rushed for 1,743 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2010 — and was disappointed. Two-thousand is the magic number for Devine backs, a precedent set by Stephen Carrillo in 2007 and Paul Whitehead in 2003 and 2004.

In Sadler's defense, he didn't play in the second half of six blowouts last year.

This season, it's 2,000 yards and 30 TDs or bust. The Warhorses have the offensive line to do it, and Sadler needs only to watch the film of The Play for any motivation.

“I kind of let it burn in his belly a bit,” Quisenberry said. “It's our job now to make sure we don't come up an inch short.”

The biggest difference this year is that Sadler will be without his brother — the quarterback and lead blocker — for the first time in his high school career. Not that Jacob, a freshman at Texas Lutheran, thinks it will matter.

“He has the drive,” Jacob said. “He doesn't want to be known just around here.”

That's the next goal. A freckled, red-haired, 5-foot-10, 180-pound back for a Class 3A school doesn't jump out to Division I coaches.

Sadler hopes to prove them wrong and even uses The Play to showcase his abilities by including it in his highlight tape.

“I'm going in,” Sadler said. “Then it shuts off right after I fall into the end zone.”